Good morning, RVA! It's 57 °F, and, sure, we've got temperatures in the mid 70s on deck. Keep an eye—and a raincoat—out for some possible thunderstorms late this afternoon.

Water cooler

Richmond's School Board is running out of time to get facility funding into this year's budget which would be a huge bummer and a massive, disappointing letdown. Garet Prior at Richmond Forward has more details and a call for folks to show up at tonight's School Board meeting and demand action. Keep in mind, the quiet-but-meaty part of the budget season is already well underway! If we aren't working to get priorities funded now, it's extremely unlikely to see those priorities show up in the draft budgets released early next year.

J. Elias O'Neal at Richmond BizSense has an update on the ABC warehouse over by the Diamond. That piece of property is the key to unlocking all sorts of theoretical development on the Boulevard—but moving the facility requires the state to get involved, so things have bogged down over the past year. Maybe this General Assembly session, ABC! Fingers crossed!

Planning Commission meets today and will consider a resolution to change the number of folks advising the Master Plan process from 15 to 21 (PDF). They'll also think about changing the name of that group from the "Master Plan Advisory Team" to the "Master Plan Advisory Council." The name change is to "increase the gravitas of the group," which makes me laugh—nothing says gravitas like a council! Snark aside, increasing the size of the group to include more Richmond humans and a "wider cross-section of the Richmond community" seems like a great idea.

I also found this cool Urban Design Typology Analysis PDF on the Planning Commission agenda. It's got maps and descriptions of Richmond's neighborhood types—things like Streetcar Village, Historic Urban Neighborhood, and Surface Parking Dominate Zone (boooo!). It's a background report for the master planning process but a short and interesting read for folks interested in what makes up the different parts of Richmond.

This morning's longread

If Cinnabon could go gangbusters at a quiet mall like SeaTac, Greg remembers, the Restaurants Unlimited team figured it could succeed anywhere. When stores in more desirable locations struggled, the team learned a real estate lesson that doubled as a fundamental truth about Cinnabon itself: People don’t eat these doughy spectacles because they want to. They eat them because they lack the strength to resist. The wafting scent that caught Rich Komen’s attention back in Kansas City is a straight-up business tool, and the original Cinnabon’s high-visibility location was key to its success. “Let’s face it, people really want to avoid us,” Greg told an audience during a speech at Zillow a few years back. “We have to get in your way!”